Beal City denies Beavers their first volleyball regional title

HOUGHTON LAKE -- Beaverton's volleyball team almost pulled off a miraculous comeback and almost made some history on Thursday. Almost but not quite.

Trailing by a set early on, Beal City simply finished the final three sets better than the Beavers did, as the Aggies denied BHS its first-ever regional championship.

Beal rallied to win the Division 3 regional final at Houghton Lake High School 19-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-23 in a match which was incredibly competitive throughout.

The Aggies (36-7-3), who reached the state final in 2012 and 2015, advance to Tuesday's quarterfinal vs. Traverse City St. Francis in Cadillac, while the Beavers' most successful season in program history ends at 44-5-2.

"In all three sets that we lost, we were right in them. ... Last year in regionals, we weren't really in any of the sets," said BHS coach Steve Evans, whose Beavers fell in a regional final for the second straight season.

"This year, we were right there the whole match, and the girls could taste it," he added. "I think we can build off of that next year."

Beaverton sophomore setter/hitter Mady Pahl said she had no regrets about how her team played other than the final score.

"Last year, we had a great year, and we weren't expected to be as good this year," Pahl noted. "It was fun to prove to the whole community that we were back. The record that we had this year proved that we had an amazing season, no matter the outcome (tonight).

" ... I felt that we played amazing tonight," she added. " ... They (Beal City) just came back and were a better team in the end, but I thought we played really good."

Beaverton got off to a hot start in the first set, building a 10-4 lead on the strength of three kills by Molly Gerow, two kills each by Pahl and Sammy Perras, and an ace by Brenna Calhoun.

After the Aggies scored four straight points to cut it to 10-8, BHS responded with a 10-3 run, including two big kills and a block by Skyler Herber, to extend to a 20-11 advantage.

Beaverton then committed six errors in an 8-2 Beal City run which sliced the lead to 22-19, but the Beavers finished strong, coming out of a timeout with a kill by Macie Jerome and back-to-back kills by Gerow to win the set.

Beaverton went on a 6-0 run, including three kills by Pahl, to jump out to a 10-5 lead in the second set, and the Beavers later extended to a 13-7 edge. The Aggies roared back with a 12-5 outburst to take a 19-18 lead before BHS ran off four straight points to go back up, 22-19.

Coming out of a timeout, however, Beal City rattled off the final six points of the set and put it away on a vicious overhand kill by Sage Schumacher to even the match.

The pivotal third set was a back-and-forth affair from the outset. After nine ties and three lead changes, Beal City went on a 4-1 run to open up a 15-12 edge, but the Beavers replied with an 11-3 run, including three kills by Rebecca Wirt, to take a 23-18 lead.

Schumacher, a 5-foot-11 sophomore middle blocker, then took over the match for the Aggies, ripping off five kills as Beal ended the set on an 8-1 run, erased a Beaverton set point, and won 26-24 to take a one-set lead.

"We started off a little weak, and I think nerves were definitely coming into play," said Beal City coach Jade Kennedy. "But Sage Schumacher turned it on for us, and they couldn't stop her. We tried feeding her the ball as much as possible, and she was really a game-changer tonight."

With momentum very much in Beal City's favor, the Aggies rolled to an early 11-2 lead in the fourth set, as Beaverton looked a little shell-shocked. But just when BHS looked dead to rights, the Beavers came storming back.

Beaverton slowly but steadily engineered a 15-6 run to turn a 15-6 deficit into a 21-21 tie, getting its fans back into the swing of things. As the pressure and volume in the gym mounted, the score was tied at 23-23 when the Aggies finally put the set and the match away on a Beaverton error followed by a Schumacher ace.

"It was two evenly-matched teams. Both teams made big plays, and both teams came back when they were behind," Evans said.

Kennedy agreed.

"It was tough. They (Beaverton) were coming back, and everyone was getting a little nervous, but I just told them (our players) to play our game," she said. "I asked them (during a timeout) who wanted it more, and they wanted it, and they took it."

Schumacher led the Aggies with 19 kills and five blocks, while Lyndsay Fillenworth had nine kills and 15 digs, Bailey Torpey had 32 assists and 19 digs, and Chelsea Schripsema added five kills.

For Beaverton, Gerow had 24 kills and 16 digs, while Pahl had 15 kills, 30 assists, and 21 digs, and Perras added seven kills and 12 digs. Taylor Inscho finished with 26 assists, while Jerome had 23 digs, and Calhoun added three aces.

Despite the loss, Evans said that 2018 was "special."

"We weren't sure how we were going to be coming into this season. ... We wanted to be competitive in the conference, and we wanted to be competitive in districts," he said. "But then we realized early on that we had something special.

" ... My assistant coach said to me, 'I don't know what it is, but we have something special. This is going to be a special season,'" he added.

Although the Beavers will graduate five seniors, they have plenty of firepower returning, including Gerow, Pahl, Jerome, Wirt, and Herber.

"The expectation level for Beaverton volleyball now has changed. We're no longer hoping to get to places; we're expecting to get to places. Now, we expect to get even further," Evans noted.

" ... We'll lose some key players, but ... we'll have younger players step up," he added. "We'll find some players to replace (the seniors) and carry on the tradition."

"I'm really excited (for next year)," Pahl said. " ... We have a lot of talent (returning), and I'm super excited to see which underclassmen can help us next year."